1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an ink supply source driving apparatus, for example, an ink pump driving apparatus for rotary presses.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the driving of ink supply sources, for example, ink pumps 1, 2, 3, 4 in a prior art rotary press in operation is done as the rotation of a printing cylinder (for example, plate cylinder) gear 21 is transmitted to an ink cylinder gear 32 via a gear mechanism 31, then to a driving shaft 13 via a rotary press driving system including, for example, a bevel gear mechanism 33, a worm gear 34 and a clutch 35, and further to the ink pumps 1, 2, 3, 4 via clutches 9, 10, 11, 12 and driving support shafts 5, 6, 7, 8.
On the other hand, in order to feed the ink rapidly before starting a printing operation, carry out the cleaning of the parts after the completion of a printing operation, or purge the ink pumps of the ink for replacing the ink by ink of a different color, the driving gear train constituting the rotary driving system and adapted to transmit the rotation of the printing cylinder gear 21 from the ink cylinder gear 32 to the ink pumps 1, 2, 3, 4 is cut off at, for example, the clutch 35, and the ink supply sources are driven usually at a high speed by a special driving system (including the driving shaft 13, clutches 9, 10, 11, 12 and driving support shafts 5, 6, 7, 8) adapted to transmit power from a special ink supply source driving means (for example, an air motor 36), which is provided independently of the rotary press driving system, to the ink pumps 1, 2, 3, 4.
The driving of the ink supply sources in the above-described prior art rotary press is done by two systems, i.e. a rotary press driving system actuated by an ink cylinder, and a special driving system, and, especially, the driving gear train (especially, the bevel gear mechanism 33, worm gear 34 and clutch 35) in the rotary press driving system has a complicated construction. Consequently, the cost of manufacturing the rotary press becomes high. Moreover, the reliability of this product decreases due to a large number of constituent parts thereof, and it is troublesome to carry out the maintenance work therefor. Since a lot of parts are used for the production of the driving apparatus, a large space is required for providing the apparatus in a rotary press, and the weight of the resultant rotary press increases.